Kyiv, Ukraine – “Skunk” found himself pinned in a trench, in numerical inferiority and under a fire at an implacable close range. It was Christmas Eve 2024, and the 38-year-old United States Aviation The veteran served with a unit in eastern Ukraine while this country is entering its fourth year of repulsive repulse of the large -scale invasion of Russia. He did not speak Ukrainian or Russian, and it had been 15 years that he had served in the American army, but he felt forced to try to help defend an ally.
He had arrived in Ukraine only two months earlier, shortly after submitting his electoral ballot in 2024. It was the first time he voted in his life and, recalling a feeling of better moments during the first term of President Donald Trump, he voted to bring him back to the post. He applauded when he discovered that he had chosen the winner.
But when he turned his head in this trench in the hours preceding Christmas, a circle torn his thermal glasses and torn his face.
“It exploded in my eyes,” said Skunk, pointing to the scars on his right eyelid. He spoke to Military.com via a video interview earlier this month of izium – an area formerly occupied in the Kharkiv region which was released in 2023, but which remains on the front line under a constant attack. Like other troops that fight in this war, Skunk asked to be mentioned by his war name, a nickname of war, for fear that his family be targeted by Russia.
The ball broke his collarbone and his collarbone. Two others in his unit were killed on the same mission: a dismembered by a shell, another captured by the Russians and executed a day later, it was said.
It was while he recovered from his injuries last month that he considered his worthy sacrifice was questioned by the president for whom he had voted.
Seeing the Trump Zelenskyy label – A Skunk war leader risked his life – because a dictator looked like a punch. To hear him reject the will of Ukraine to continue to defend himself felt even worse.
“Fear crossed me,” he said.
This made him reconsider the American flag plates which he proudly worn on his uniform while fighting in Ukraine.
“It may be time to remove this F — ING flag, sitting next to the Ukrainian,” he said. “I have an accent from the north of Illinois – I prefer that people think I’m Canadian.”
Hundreds of Americans have fought in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s large -scale invasion. At least 50 were killed, 40 including former members of the American service. Military.com spoke to half a dozen American veterans who have fought for Ukraine and are currently in the country in the way their prospects have changed since Trump took office.
For some foreign fighters, the battlefield in Ukraine is only a front in a broader war for justice and freedom. But watching Washington’s political intestine struggles in the trenches led their faith in American justice – once undisputed – to start moving away.
For Skunk, this achievement has bitten, but it has also sharpened its determination to support Ukraine. Whatever happened in the United States, he knew what was sworn in almost 20 years ago. And he hadn’t finished fighting for that, even if it changed his relationship with American democracy.
“I will never vote again.”
“ They hope that I will come home like ashes in a box ”
While the sudden diplomatic crisis between Ukrainian and American governments took place in Washington, foreign fighters felt the benefits, as well as their Ukrainian arms brothers. “Tiger”, a 39-year-old former sailor from Michigan Fighting and Training Troops in Ukraine since the beginning of 2022, said earlier that he was also dismayed by the dispute between the American president and Zelenskyy. He also supported Trump in the last elections.
“Honestly, it made me sick of seeing officials of the American government’s law in this way,” he told Military.com by video with his unit on the eastern front. Tiger received prizes from the Armed Forces of Ukraine for its service and is sought by the Kremlin for the “crime” to fight against the Russian forces. He has lost dozens of friends in the past three years – including several American veterans – because he has helped hold the line in Bakhmut, Zaporizhzhia and, more recently, Pokrovske.
He was preparing for a risky mission to recover the body of a fallen brother – another American and volunteer fighter who was killed for a mission of weeks before. The Russian forces had invaded the region, said Tiger, condemning previous recovery efforts. Now, his cheeks are ripping out with anger when he looked at what he described as the lack of respect for the White House towards the sacrifices already made by his friend and countless others killed in Ukraine.
“If you were in camera, not in the eyes of the public and you wanted to behave in this way, it’s different,” he said. “But to do it in front of millions of people, and Berate (Zelenskyy), a man who tries only to save his country, it was not only stupid, it was disgusting.”
In the weeks following the White House spit, Trump temporarily frozen military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine – leaving troops like Skunk and Tiger even more exposed on the front lines. Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles through the border during this period, with an attack in Dobropillia, near the place where Tiger was stationed in the Donetsk region, causing 14 deaths and dozens of injuries, according to The guardian.
America, which, backs up its support for Ukraine means that Tiger must now defend itself both on and outside, he said. He has seen an increase in mail threats and deaths of hate Russians and Maga Republicans self-proclaimed in the United States since he started to publicly criticize Trump’s approach to end the war in Ukraine.
“I am harassed all the time,” he said. “The guys who say that I am a traitor, and if I ever come back to the United States, they will kill me. Telling me that they hope that I will die here. … They hope that I will come home in the form of ashes in a box.”
For some veterans, the American alliance with Russia is intrinsically absurd.
“What I find most painful is that you have voices in the United States and in power positions that do not seem to be aware of the awareness that Russia – no matter what it says – is diametrically opposed to American lifestyle,” said Mexico, “a former Washington, DC and veteran of the war in Afghanist.
The 34 -year -old man fought for the first time with the International Legion for about six months in 2022 before moving on to the creation of partnerships between Ukrainian and American companies.
He linked the dangers presented by the current situation in Ukraine to the consequences of the failure of the withdrawal in 2021 of American troops from Afghanistan. Several of the veterans who spoke with Military.com for this article referred to the botched retirement such as a nightmare scenario which, feared, could repeat themselves in Ukraine if Trump was permanently supported by the country.
“On the personal level, I will no longer suffer from the humiliation of Afghanistan. I lost friends there,” said Mexico, briefly recalling the first time he “had seen a torn man” in front of him. “I will not give up another country, not once again.”
Resolved to continue fighting
But the higher risk and diplomatic acrobatics only strengthened Tiger, and other American veterans, the determination to fight for the future of Ukraine. And they say that the Ukrainians will not stop either, in particular those who have family members trapped behind the Russian lines.
“I would not simply put my family back and I would one day call it because some rattard politicians were talking to me,” said Tiger. “I will continue to fight until I can recover my aunt and my uncle, or my sister F — Ing. They will not stop.”
Tiger had fought in Iraq and with the Peshmerga in Kurdistan before arriving in Ukraine, but said that this war was different from what he ever knew – both in terms of brutality and ideological clarity.
“One huge thing I saw here, personally on the front line, is the heart that (the Ukrainians) have,” he said. It could be difficult to work with unruly soldiers and not engaged in the Middle East, but things were different here. “Whenever I instructed, 99% of the students were open, the eye globes who look. … They want to learn.”
Skunk, who had never seen a fight before coming to Ukraine, had a easier way to say. “It is roughly the First World War on steroids,” he said, only partially joking. Humor was a secret weapon for the Ukrainians, exercised by exhausted soldiers who make jokes even at the darker moments so as not to break. Now the Punch line is the United States
“Hey, American-What is F —?” Skunk said he had often asked these days, usually with a sly smile or an uptop of shoulders, as if they were half tried. Above all. “They know that I do not represent (the American government) as a SH show. I represent (the United States) as a free country.”
Tiger said that the question of whether the United States should continue to support Ukraine with all my heart should be even clearer for civilians and politicians. “I didn’t like (Biden). I don’t like F — Ing Trump. I don’t like Harris. I don’t like any of the presidents F — ING I had in my lifetime,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that if they do something good, I have to oppose it, right? I understand what is good.”
For the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who still lasted bunkers and trenches through Ukraine’s front lines, kyiv’s high politics, Washington and Moscow may seem to be a world with little impact on their daily life.
After all, the bombs have not yet stopped falling.
“They are like, f — It. … We will do it by ourselves if we owe it,” recalls Skunk his Ukrainian friends who told him after the last trip of Zelenskyy to the United States “and each of them will be F-ING.
– Katie Livingstone is an independent correspondent who currently reports in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. A graduate of Medill and Wellesley, his work appeared in Foreign Policy Magazine, Rolling Stone Magazine, USA Today, Upi and more. Katie speaks five languages and lives in Washington, DC